Based on Alberto Moravia's novel, Godard's nearest foray into mainstream cinema is an unsparing exploration of a relationship brought undone by the corrosive effects of selling out.

Aspiring playwright Paul Javal (Michele Piccoli) is called in as a script doctor on a film adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey. Caught between the film's director, Fritz Lang (playing himself) intent on making an historically faithful adaptation of a classical text and a crass American producer, Prokosch (Jack Palance) who just wants more mermaids, Paul's diminishing professional integrity is brought into ever starker relief by the deepening estrangement between he and his disenchanted spouse, Camille (Brigitte Bardot).

Contempt screens in tandem with Redoubtable (aka Godard mon amour), which casts Jean-Luc Godard as the unlikely romantic lead in the droll new romantic comedy by Michel Hazanavicius.

NONE: Jean-Luc Godard

Duration: 105 mins

Countries: France, Italy

Language: English, French, German and Italian w/English subtitles

Date: 1963

Format: DCP, Colour

Courtesy: Studiocanal

Source: Studiocanal

Rating: PG (Mild themes)

Related

Read

Godard's contempt for commerce

Nick Bugeja grapples with the tension of art and commerce in Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt

ACMI acknowledges the Traditional Owners, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, on whose land we meet, share and work. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and extend our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from all nations of this land.